THE private investigator at the heart of the phone hacking scandal insisted yesterday: “I was only obeying orders.”

In a strongly worded statement from his solicitors, Glenn Mulcaire dismissed suggestions he acted alone as he targeted victims for the News of the World.

The move turns up the heat on senior figures the day after it was revealed that phone details of the mother of murdered Sarah Payne were found in the files of Mulcaire, who was jailed for six months in 2007 for hacking into mobile voicemails of royal aides,

His statement comes after the defunct New of the World’s publisher, Rupert Murdoch’s News International, announced last week that it would stop paying his legal fees.